{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp151.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp151.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp151.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nPau\u0144d\u0301raka, a V\u00e1sudeva, assumes the insignia and style of Krish\u0144a, supported by the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed. Krish\u0144a marches against, and destroys them. The son of the king sends a magical being against Krish\u0144a: destroyed by his discus, which also sets Benares on fire, and consumes it and its inhabitants.\nMAITREYA.--Of a truth the divine \u015aauri, having assumed a mortal body, performed great achievements in his easy victories over \u015aakra and \u015aiva, and all their attendant divinities. I am now desirous to hear from you, illustrious sage, what other mighty exploit the humiliator of the prowess of the celestials performed.\nPAR\u00c1\u015aARA.--Hear, excellent Brahman, with reverent attention, an account of the burning of Var\u00e1\u0144as\u00ed by Krish\u0144a, in the course of his relieving the burdens of the earth.\nThere was a V\u00e1sudeva who was called Pau\u0144d\u0301raka 1, and who, though not the V\u00e1sudeva, was flattered by ignorant people as the descended deity, until he fancied himself to be the V\u00e1sudeva 2 who had come down upon earth. Losing all recollection of his real character, he assumed the emblems of Vish\u0144u, and sent an ambassador to the magnanimous Krish\u0144a with this message; \"Relinquish, thou foolish fellow, the discus; lay aside all my insignia, my name, and the character of V\u00e1sudeva; and come and do me homage; and I will vouchsafe thee means of subsistence.\" At which Jan\u00e1rddana laughed, and replied, \"Go, messenger, back to Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, and say to him from me, 'I will dispatch to thee my emblem the discus without fail. Thou wilt rightly apprehend my meaning, and consider what is to be done; for I shall come to thy city, bringing the discus with me, and shall undoubtedly consign it to thee. If thou wilt command me to come, I will immediately obey, and be with\nthee to-morrow; there shall be no delay: and, having sought thy asylum, I will so provide, O king, that I shall never more have any thing to dread from thee.'\" So saying, he dismissed the, ambassador to report these words to his sovereign; and summoning Garud\u0301a, mounted him, and set off for the city of Pau\u0144d\u0301raka 3.\nWhen the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed heard of the preparations of Ke\u015bava, he sent his army (to the aid of Pau\u0144d\u0301raka), himself bringing up the rear; and with the force of the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, and his own troops, Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, the false V\u00e1sudeva, marched to meet Krish\u0144a. Hari beheld him afar off, standing in his car, holding a discus, a club, a mace, a scimitar, and a lotus, in his hands; ornamented with a garland of flowers; bearing a bow; and having his standard made of gold: he had also the Srivatsa mark delineated on his breast; he was dressed in yellow garments, and decorated with earrings and a tiara. When the god whose standard is Garud\u0301a beheld him, he laughed with a deep laugh, and engaged in conflict with the hostile host of cavalry and elephants, fighting with swords, scimitars, maces, tridents, spears, and bows. Showering upon the enemy the shafts from his \u015a\u00e1ranga bow, and hurling at them his mace and discus, he quickly destroyed both the army of Pau\u0144d\u0301raka and that of the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed. He then said to the former, who was foolishly wearing his emblems, \"Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, you desired me by your envoy to resign to you all my insignia. I now deliver them to you. Here is\nmy discus; here I give up my mace; and here is Garud\u0301a, let him mount upon thy standard.\" Thus speaking, he let fly the discus and the mace, by which Pau\u0144d\u0301raka was cut to pieces, and cast on the ground; whilst the Garud\u0301a on his banner was demolished by the Garud\u0301a of Vish\u0144u. The people, beholding this sight, exclaimed, \"Alas! alas!\" but the valiant king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, adhering to the imposture of his friend, continued the conflict, till \u015aauri decapitated him with his arrows, shooting his head into the city of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, to the marvel of all the inhabitants. Having thus slain Pau\u0144d\u0301raka and the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, with all their followers, \u015aauri returned to Dw\u00e1rak\u00e1, where he lived in the enjoyment of heavenly delights.\nWhen the inhabitants of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed saw the head of their king shot into their city, they were much astonished, and wondered how it could have happened, and by whom the deed could have been done. Having ascertained that the king had been killed by Krish\u0144a, the son of the monarch of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed 4, together with the priest of the family, propitiated \u015aankara; and that deity, well pleased to be adored in the sacred place Avimukta, desired the prince to demand a boon: on which he prayed, and said, \"O lord, mighty god, through thy favour let thy mystic spirit arise to destroy Krish\u0144a, the murderer of my father.\" \"It shall be so,\" answered \u015aankara: and from out of the southern fire upsprang a vast and formidable female 5, like flame out of fire, blazing with ruddy light, and with fiery radiance streaming amidst her hair. Angrily she called upon Krish\u0144a, and departed to Dw\u00e1rak\u00e1; where the people, beholding her, were struck with dismay, and fled for protection to Madhus\u00fadana, the refuge of all worlds. The wielder of the discus knowing that the fiend had been produced by the son of the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, through his adoration of the deity whose emblem is a bull, and being engaged in sportive amusements, and playing at dice, said to the discus, \"Kill this fierce creature, whose tresses are of plaited flame.\" Accordingly Sudar\u015bana, the discus\nof Vish\u0144u, immediately attacked the fiend, fearfully enwreathed with fire, and wearing tresses of plaited flame. Terrified at the might of Sudar\u015bana, the creation of Mahe\u015bwara awaited not his attack, but fled with speed, pursued by him with equal velocity, until she reached Var\u00e1n\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, repelled by the superior might of the discus of Vish\u0144u.\nThe army of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed, and the host of the demigods attendant upon \u015aiva, armed with all kinds of weapons, then sallied out to oppose the discus; but, skilled in the use of arms, he consumed the whole of the forces by his radiance, and then set fire to the city, in which the magic power of \u015aiva had concealed herself 6. Thus was Var\u00e1n\u00e1\u015b\u00ed burnt, with all its princes and their followers, its inhabitants, elephants, horses, and men, treasures and granaries, houses, palaces, and markets. The whole of a city, that was inaccessible to the gods, was thus wrapped in flames by the discus of Hari, and was totally destroyed. The discus then, with unmitigated wrath, and blazing fiercely, and far from satisfied with the accomplishment of so easy a task, returned to the hand of Vish\u0144u 7.\n597:1 From being, the commentator says, king of Pu\u0144d\u0301ra. The Bh\u00e1gavata calls him chief of the K\u00e1r\u00fashas; the Padma, king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed; but the Bh\u00e1gavata, as well as our text, makes the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed his friend and ally.\n597:2 According to the Padma P., he propitiates \u015aiva, and obtains from him the insignia which constitute a V\u00e1sudeva. The different authorities for this legend all use the term V\u00e1sudeva in the sense of a title.\n598:3 The Hari V. and Padma P. send Pau\u0144d\u0301raka to Dw\u00e1rak\u00e1. According to the latter, N\u00e1rada incites Pau\u0144d\u0301raka to the aggression, telling him he cannot be a V\u00e1sudeva till he has overcome Krish\u0144a: he goes, and is killed. The former work, as usual, enters into particulars of its own invention. Krish\u0144a is absent on a visit to \u015aiva at Kail\u00e1sa, and during his absence Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, assisted by Ekalavya, king of the Nish\u00e1das, makes a night attack upon Dw\u00e1rak\u00e1. They are resisted by the Y\u00e1davas under S\u00e1tyaki and Balar\u00e1ma; by the former of whom Pau\u0144d\u0301raka is repeatedly overthrown, and all but slain: he requires so much killing, however, that he is likely to obtain the victory, when Krish\u0144a conies to the aid of his kinsmen, and after a protracted encounter, described in language employed a hundred times before, kills his competitor. The whole of the sections called the Kail\u00e1sa Y\u00e1tr\u00e1, or Krish\u0144a's journey to Kail\u00e1sa, must have been wanting in the copy used by M. Langlois, as they are not included in his translation. The chapters of the Hari V. according to his enumeration of them are 261: my copy has 316.\n599:4 The Bh\u00e1gavata names him Sudakshi\u0144a; the Padma, Da\u0144d\u0301ap\u00e1ni.\n599:5 A personified Krity\u00e1, a magical creation. The Padma has the same. The Bh\u00e1gavata makes the product of the sacrificial fire a male, and sends him to Dw\u00e1rak\u00e1, accompanied by a host of Bh\u00fatas, Suva's attendant goblins.\n600:6 According to the Bh\u00e1gavata, the magical being himself destroys Sudakshi\u0144a and his priest; but Sudar\u015bana consumes the people and the city. The Padma ascribes the destruction of the king and all his city to the discus. The Hari V. closes its narrative with the death of Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, and makes no mention of the destruction of Benares. The circumstance is alluded to in a preceding section (s. 159) by N\u00e1rada, when detailing the exploits of Krish\u0144a.\n600:7 In this legend, again, we have a contest between the followers of Vish\u0144u and \u015aiva intimated, as, besides the assistance given by the latter to Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, Benares--Var\u00e1n\u00e1\u015b\u00ed or Atimukta--has been from all time, as it is at present, the high place of the \u015aaiva worship. There is also an indication of a Vaish\u0144ava schism, in the competition between Pau\u0144d\u0301ra and Krish\u0144a for the title of V\u00e1sudeva, and the insignia of his divinity.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book V: Chapter XXXIV","type":"page"}